Woods' skipping of Nissan not a strategic move

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, February 15, 2007

Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez

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Tom Watson smiles at the gallery after a birdie putt on the fourth hole during the third round of the Pebble Beach National Pro Am at the Spyglass Hill golf course in Pebble Beach, Calif., Saturday, Feb. 10, 2007.(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) less

Tom Watson smiles at the gallery after a birdie putt on the fourth hole during the third round of the Pebble Beach National Pro Am at the Spyglass Hill golf course in Pebble Beach, Calif., Saturday, Feb. 10, ... more

Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez

Woods' skipping of Nissan not a strategic move

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Today, for only the second time in the past 11 years, the Nissan Open will begin without Tiger Woods in the field. Woods chose to sit on his seven-tournament winning streak for one more week before resurfacing at the Match Play Championship in Tucson.

But did Woods protect his winning streak by skipping the event at Riviera Country Club in Southern California? Hardly.

True, Woods has not won on the classic, tight, tree-lined layout near Sunset Boulevard. It's the polar opposite of wide-open St. Andrews, where Woods reigns, and dramatically different than Augusta National, where his distance off the tee has pushed him toward four Masters titles.

Even so, Woods has a long history of tackling challenges -- he perpetually cleans up at majors and World Golf Championship events, where the fields are strongest and the courses most severe. And even if he had played Riviera, his streak will endure its toughest test next week because of the vagaries of the match-play format.

If Woods suddenly withdraws from Match Play, then go ahead and accuse him of protecting his winning streak.

The reality is, the PGA Tour's new FedEx Cup schedule is designed to gather the top players more frequently in August and September. That means some of those top players will sacrifice early-season events while eyeing the inaugural, late-summer "postseason." It seems like a reasonable trade-off, from this vantage point.

One other nugget to consider: If Woods does win Match Play, and also takes the two Florida tournaments he's expected to enter (at Bay Hill and Doral), his streak would stand at 10 entering the Masters. He would pursue magical No. 11, and a tie with Byron Nelson's record, on the hallowed fairways of Augusta National.

Now that would be cool.

Harding fallout: News of the Tour's decision to bring the 2009 Presidents Cup to Harding Park met with predictable praise in most corners. Players raved about the course in the wake of the American Express Championship in 2005.

Chicago golf officials, however, were not thrilled to learn Harding's revised deal includes the BMW Championship -- formerly the Western Open, with deep Chicago ties -- in 2013 or '14. The PGA Tour apparently did not alert Chicago officials about the ongoing talks with San Francisco.

Two observations here:

-- Chicagoans deserve an annual tour event, absolutely. They avidly supported the Western the past 45 years, as they did when major championships came to the area: most recently, the U.S. Open in 2003 and the PGA in 2006. But the BMW still will be based in Chicago and held there most years, including four of the next six.

-- Not to seem provincial, but Bay Area fans long have been ignored by the tour: The last event regularly held in San Francisco was the Lucky International in the 1960s. Since then, the city has hosted an occasional U.S. Open (1987 and '98), two Tour Championships and the AMEX. So two elite events in the next seven years hardly seems excessive.

City chatter: Tom Watson became one of the best stories of the AT&T, tying for 19th in the tournament and teaming with his 24-year-old son, Michael, to finish second in the pro-am competition. Watson clearly relished the chance to play Pebble Beach alongside his son.

Watson also paused to reminisce about his long-ago appearances in the San Francisco City Golf Championship. He didn't win the City -- "never played worth a darn in it," he said -- but he still had vivid recollections of his two or three starts in the tournament during his late-1960s Stanford days.

Namely, he remembered meeting renowned amateur Harvie Ward in San Francisco, and even playing a round with Ward. "That was a treat," Watson said.

Oh, and he remembered the weather. Naturally.

"Wet," Watson said, grinning. "It was just sopping wet."

It was so wet, Watson eschewed conventional golf shoes -- he wore hard-spiked rubber covers over his regular street shoes. He commonly wore those "rubber things" back then, he said, at least when the conditions were soggy.

Qualifying for this year's City tournament resumes Friday at Lincoln Park. The event runs through March 11.

LPGA opener: The LPGA season officially begins today in Hawaii, with nine of last year's top 10 money winners in the field -- including Lorena Ochoa, Karrie Webb, Juli Inkster and Pat Hurst. The lone exception is significant: Annika Sorenstam, the world's No. 1-ranked player.

Maybe she and Woods are having a match-play duel back home in Florida.

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